Alsolate
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Posts posted by Alsolate
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@Padders I feel for you man. In my very limited experience managing youth players for the challenge, they don't seem to respond well to criticicm. In my Berliner Dynamo save an aggressive team talk (which I nearly always use in normal fm saves) was an almost certain loss. But you go on winning runs/streaks too so without playing your save I have no idea what to suggest. If it was just tactics, it would be more hit and miss than a win streak and a losing streak. Good thing you're not easily deterred! I'd have long since thrown my toys out of the pram. Do enjoy reading your updates, just wish it was going better for you.
2020 Season
I haven't played in Iceland since Fm18 with Fjolnir. I forgot how bad the standard is in this nation, balls rebounding into the net, defenders just stopping to watch the ball go over their heads, goalkeepers fumbling etc. I missed it though! It took about 15 games for the players to actually adapt to the tactics, but once they did we fired up the table. We finished second and promotion to the top tier. The intake was alright, there are some players who will be good in a few years. I'm recording far too much on my tracker as I envisage a 20 year + career here all going well and some of the data may be interesting to track long term.
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Selfoss Promoted/Prediction Squad Manager Profile
I was hoping Hof or Vik had a team eligible for this challenge but they don't so happy to settle with Selfoss. The town has a population of around 7000 and no waterfall, despite 'foss' in it's name (which means waterfall). They've been in the top division twice, in 2010 and 2012. Looking at their league position history, the 2019 season is their first in the 3rd tier since 2007. In theory this squad should be half decent then, with an outside shot at promotion. In a much better league I might have repicked a team to make it harder but think this will be hard enough as it is haha.
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I've quit the Berliner Dynamo save as I'm just not enjoying it. The team was on course to survive in the Bundesliga and I feel it's just not what I'm looking for from this challenge. I'm going to one of my favourite countries, Iceland, to see how far I can go there. I know the Champions League is impossible but I'm hoping to have fun seeing what I can do with far more severe financial restrictions. The team I want is Selfoss, so going to keep reloading til I get them. I think 22 game seasons will help me keep interested more too. Post incoming soon...
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We got promoted as champions, really comfortably as it turns out. BUT they sold that goalkeeper who is sure to be world class, so it still feels like a letdown. It could be many years until another one as good comes through. I think we'll stay up, as surely there's 2-3 sides worse than us, and I don't anticipate losing any first team players. Expecting a few cricket scores off Bayern et al. There's been A LOT of wingers coming through the intake year on year, far more so than other positions.
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It's great how you guys support each other, rather than competing against each other. Congrats on Bundesliga XaW, if nothing else, that prize money will be a huge bonus. But you might stay up, looking at your first 4 results.
Double season update coming up, as I struggled through the first season then overhauled tactics and retained youngsters and had a brilliant second season.
2026-27
Ugh. Despite a decent bank balance, they sold my best defender for 3.7m. It impacted up far more than I anticipated. The goals also dried up in attack which led to a horrific season by our normal standards. I did clear out some of the older players who were no longer cutting it (this probably also contributed to us nearly being relegated.
We ended up one place above the relegation play-off, by 5 points. We deserved to go down I feel, yet in no season would 35 points have been enough to go down.
So it was the end of the 4-2-4-0 that had served my so well in other saves, and a few adjustments to make it a 4-3-2-1, retaining the potency of 2 central attacking midfielders and pulling the wingers back a bit. Ready for the next season.
2027-28
We took a while to adapt to the new formation, particularly the strikers, who never got going til the second half of the season. After the January friendlies we went on a fantastic run, but were too far behind to catch the top 3. We turned over champions Hertha 4-1 away, and thumped another team 7-2. Previous seasons we would be on the receiving end of the 7-2. I feel we could go up this next season...
The youth intake was strong again, but oh god the why? The profile photo for my highest potential youngster has gone wrong... here He certainly looks unique...
Dominik Zimmer is our Francesco Totti, the talisman.
Marvin Muller is the best player to come through the ranks so far.
Alexandros Bountopoulos the coaches reckon he will be amazing too. Top Bundesliga teams are already sniffing around him. Another reason I kinda need to get promoted very soon before the board sell him for peanuts.
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@manutdfan1999 You seem to have solved the screenshot question. But if you're still seeking options, someone said a while back they use Greenshot so that's what I use and upload to Imgur.
Season 6 2025-26
Youth Intake Transfers Finances
I know the transfer screenshot is taken a month early but I'm in the mood for writing the season summary now. I can provide a complete one showing June if requested.
Lots of things seemed to happen this season. We recorded our lowest finish in 2. Liga. We broke our goalscoring record. Our young left back won German U17 player of the season, beating a talent from Dortmund. We dropped into a negative bank balance briefly. I switched a player role in our tactics for a while with little success. The youth preview mentions this year's group potentially being a golden generation. As usual we lost in the 3rd round of the cup to a Bundesliga side.
Main goals for the coming season are as follows:
- Reduce the player wages. We should have a healthy bank balance and I've been very lax recently in giving senior player pretty much whatever they want due to the necessity of retaining them. With good youth players I can start selling the poorer ones.
- Try and get more 4.5* coaches to improve first team players.
- Find a cb/cm to retrain into the dm role as the ageing Pollasch is declining fast, and one of the main reasons we finished so low I suspect.
- Try and promote another 4 or 5 of the high potential players in U19s and give them game time where possible.
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Season 5 2024-25
Transfers Finances Youth Intake p1 p2
A strong finish. We have 4 regular starters now from youth newgens. Bjorn Bremer 22A Timmy Grossert 20A Dominik Zimmer 22B Francois Owona 23B They are all first choices in their positions. Others are starting to come through as well, with a lb to start playing the next season.
Our parent club were relegated to our division before I had chance to cancel the link. They never sent any players out to us either. There are some top prospects in this year's intake. My main concern is a lack of youth goalkeepers. This year was the second one I believe, and again underwhelming. I have 2 senior keepers and the first choice is one of my best players. He refuses to sign a new deal without a £250,000 minimum release clause to Bundesliga clubs. There's 2 years left so unless he changes his mind I will let his contract run down and try to give in to his demands near the expiry time. Keeping the youth players has been straightforward due to playing in a major league and being on strong financial footing since collecting 2. Liga prize money every year.
We still can't beat average Bundesliga teams in the cup so I don't want us to go up in case we get relegated and I get sacked. I'd like to be promoted by 2029-30 as facilities are getting expensive to improve further. Average attendance leapt by over 50%, no idea why the huge jump. I'm really happy with how some of these youth players are developing.
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First of all, congratulations to the two who have completed the challenge since I was last on here!! Both with teams geographically near to me no less. Seriously, well done for climbing all those English leagues.
Season 4 2023-24
Transfers Finances Youth Intake
Another steady season in 2. Liga. Due to the ridiculous prize money, all facilities have been improved again. We achieved our best finish with me in charge. And what better way to celebrate than be getting parent club from the Bundesliga, Hertha Berlin. Obviously I will reject any players they send, or just dump them in the BFC Dynamo II team.
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Season 3: 2022-23
Transfers Y. Preview Y. Intake
I've had internet problems so a late update. Nearly finished the next season too so will probably be writing that one tonight or tomorrow.
Mid-table again and long may it continue. Despite mediocre youth intakes, a couple of players are making the step up. Especially Bjorn Bremer. He's already my first choice cb. I renewed all senior players' contracts and facilities are improving. A lot of the senior squad are very similar in abilities so I'd like to sell some in the next couple of seasons when youth players are about ready to step up. We have a B squad but they only play the occasional friendly and I don't know if they climb the leagues automatically or what. So just putting youth players that aren't going to make it in there at present due to the lack of matches they play.
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Some tough reading seeing some of the posts on this page. Especially Scarborough slipping out of the prem after so long.
Season 2: 2021-2022
Transfers Y. Preview Y. Intake
We stayed up and finished comfortably mid-table. A dreadful start to the season was countered by 7 or 8 unbeaten after the January break. Our top scorer had 6 goals haha. Our top assister has retired to fully focus on his role as our U19 assistant manager.
Our best youth prospect (he wasn't that great to be honest) was sold for £500,000 in pre-season. I offered him around after the board accepted £195,000. We were awarded £9.08M (!!!) for finishing 10th so that put the finances well into the black and hopefully puts me in a position to reject bids for youth players this year.
In theory there isn't going to be much to write about these next few seasons if all goes to plan. There's no really good youth in 2 years of intakes so it's just about suriving and keeping hold of as many first teamers as possible. Some would only sign new contracts if they included low minimum fee release clauses. If we're well into mid table I will try to play youth teamers more to try and develop their stats.
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Season 1
2020-2021
Table Transfers Squad Finances
Youth Preview Youth Candidates
Well that was an interesting first season. When I took over we were 7k a week over budget with 0 transfer funds. Selling a good prospect to Wolfsburg for £650,000 and 50% future fee was good business I felt, though the managerial support from the players plummeted to 'abysmal' as a result. I was very surprised at the team as they just kept winning, despite being one of the worst sides in the league. It was only the results that turned the managerial support back to average.
Financially, we were bleeding money and I was expecting to sell another good player in the summer to try and balance the books a bit. Another fun thing is that players under the age of 17 on 1 Jan of that season cannot play in the first team. So my youth intake would dictate how many players could leave in the summer to make me remain eligibe for this challenge. I think there's 2 youth players who can play in the coming season (assuming 2. Liga is the same rules).
Somehow we managed to grab the 3rd spot in the league with our squad of 20. A 0-0 first leg home draw against Osnabruck gave them the advantage in the second leg. Despite this we went 2-0 up and clung on to a 2-2 draw late on to beat them on away goals. I never win playoffs or cup finals so wasn't expecting this. Ideally we wouldn't have gone up since I fear we are going to get battered plenty in 2. Liga. I couldn't bring myself to sabotage my season so just let the fates decide if we won the playoff, which we did. On the upside, we are now financially secure for the coming season, and I can actually recruit staff now there is wage budget available.
I offered all the youth candidates contracts as we need the numbers. It was a poor intake and none really stand out but that's fine for now. A lot of the first team squad are young so if I can hang on to them I can afford a few years of poor youth intakes. Our top scorer is 35 and will need a replacement at some point...
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Take 2, I'm going to try Germany again...
Keeping it short and sweet this time. If I last the season I will add in some background info about the club.
manager profile facilities (18723 capacity) finances predicted to finish 17th top of squad only newgen club overview
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Failed. After a decent start in August, a run of 5 straight defeats and 2 draws saw me sacked in october. The two best players received bids which I rejected, then the squad were unhappy I didn't allow either to leave. So I sold both and the squad were unhappy I was selling our best players. I never really won the dressing room and the tactic I normally use just didn't click for them. I'm going to play around with tactics in this save to see if I can improve it, then going to retry the challenge in France. I learned a lot, but still disappointed in how quickly if fell apart.
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Hi everyone, I recently visited this forum looking for cool challenges to try and now here I am trying what appears to be one of the hardest. I was initially going to try with a Dutch club but there's some weird thing about promotion to the Eerste Divisie for the next few years so I changed to Germany.
Rot-Weiss Essen. A club that was founded on my birthday (they're a bit older than me), and made Pele an honorary member in 2005. They have been crowned the best team in Germany once, in 1955. This was 8 years before it became known as the Bundesliga. They also won the DFB-Pokal the year it was re-introduced into German football, 1952-3. Their most famous player is Helmut Rahn, who scored the winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final. He was born in Essen and played for RW Essen for 8-9 years, during which they won the above honours.
Hailing from the city of Essen, RW Essen play at the 20,650 capacity Stadion Essen. They have been no higher than the Regionalliga West since 2007-08. They have decent facilities and healthy finances. The first-team squad looks strong, while the board aim is mid-table and continuin to be an established 3. Liga team for the forseeable future. There are 7 newgens already in the U19s and the 2 with the best potential have gone straight into the first team squad to start getting bits of experience. Bernd Norf and Przemyslaw Bursztyn.
Manager profile as requested in challenge post.
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The FM20 Youth Academy Challenge
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted
2021
Transfers Intake Table Squad
We won the league in our first season in the top flight (with 2 games to spare no less). The finances are still very much in the red and the best players coming through the youth intake are okay. From memory we enter CL at the 2nd group stage qualifiers and I'm expecting to go straight to one of the lesser competitions as ther's no way we win the 3rd knockout match. Hoping for some sort of funds so I can do something, anything, with the facilities.